Green and Hince win Royal Guernsey's flagship Open Foursomes
IT IS only natural that coming out on top of the biggest foursomes event in Europe would exceed the expectations of most pairings.
But for Nick Green and Barry Hince, victory in Saturday’s Butterfield Open Foursomes Stableford on a day when 320 golfers took to the L’Ancresse links despite the tough north-easterly that made scoring particularly difficult came as an even bigger surprise considering their preparations for their 8am tee time.
‘We play together in the winter league and we had the dinner for that last night – we wined and dined very well,’ said Hince with a large grin.
‘The secret is obviously not to abstain the night before.’
In his winner’s speech to a large gathering in the Royal Guernsey clubhouse, Green added: ‘Barry and I had very low expectations, but I can recommend playing with a hangover.’
It certainly concentrated the mind for the pairing from the host club on a day when conditions were testing throughout but got even harder as the day progressed.
It was no wonder, then, that the only two pairings to break par were back in the clubhouse relatively early.
Unfortunately for Mick Peet and Jeremy Teehan, they held the lead for the matter of around 20 minutes before Green and Hince edged them out on countback, both teams having returned an excellent 38 points.
The key to the victors’ success was their consistency as, playing off a combined handicap of 19, they managed to score on every hole.
By the turn they had 18 points to their name with three-pointers having come on the third, sixth and eighth holes.
Further net birdies arrived on the 11th, 13th and 17th as they accrued 20 points on the back nine to set an impressive target that no pair could surpass.
‘The conditions were not easy, but we had the best of it, certainly the greens because they would have got faster and harder throughout the day.
‘They [the greenkeepers] are doing their best, but because of the weather we’ve had, you need a bit of luck on the greens if you hole putts of any length.
‘We were just steady really and scored on every hole. We would have been happy with 36 points because it was just the challenge of keeping it in play today really,’ said Hince, who emphasised the strength of the wind when he revealed that he had taken driver on the par-three 18th.
All three prizes in the scratch category were won with 27 points.
The winners on countback were former L’Ancresse Open winner Ross Haines and Matt Neville who, having reached the turn with 11 points, finished strong with 13 of their 16 points on the back nine coming in the final six holes including birdie threes at the 13th and 16th.
More in Monday's Guernsey Press.
